101 - 110 of 965 results for:
all courses

ANTHRO 126:Urban Culture in Global Perspective (URBANST 114)

Core course for Urban Studies majors. We will study urban space both historically and cross-culturally. Urban Studies, by definition, is an interdisciplinary field, where the methodological approaches draw upon a diverse set of analytic tools. Disciplines that occupy a prominent place in this class are geography, cultural anthropology, sociology, history, media studies, and literature. In this context, we will discuss the importance of cities around the world to the economic, cultural, and political well-being of modern societies and examine how forces such as industrialization, decentralization, and globalization affect the structure and function of cities.

ANTHRO 127D:HERITAGE POLITICS (ARCHLGY 127, ARCHLGY 227)

Heritage is a matter of the heart and not the brain, David Lowenthal once said. It does not seek to explore the past, but to domesticate it and enlist it for present causes. From the drafting of the first royal decrees on ancient monuments in the 17th century, political interests have had a hand in deciding which traditions, monuments and sites best represent and best serve the needs of the nation. The sum of these domestication efforts, the laws, institutions and practices established to protect and manage heritage, is what we call heritage governance. In this seminar you will learn about the politics of 21st century heritage governance at national and international level. Students will become familiar with key conventions and learn about the functioning of heritage institutions. We will also examine the hidden practices and current political developments that impact heritage governance: how UNESCO heritage sites become bargaining tools in international relations, how EU heritage policies are negotiated in the corridors of Brussels, and how the current re-nationalization of Western politics can affect what we come to know as our common past.

This multidisciplinary course combines different approaches to how GIS and spatial tools can be applied in social science research. We take a collaborative, project oriented approach to bring together technical expertise and substantive applications from several social science disciplines. The course aims to integrate tools, methods, and current debates in social science research and will enable students to engage in critical spatial research and a multidisciplinary dialogue around geographic space.

ANTHRO 132:Religion and Politics in the Muslim World

This course provides an ethnographic examination of religion and politics in the Muslim world. What is the role of Islam in the political life of modern Muslim societies? Conversely, how do modern political powers shape and constrain the terms of religious life? This course takes an anthropological perspective on the study of Islam: our investigations will not focus on the origins of scriptures and doctrines but rather on the use of religious texts and signs in social context and on the political significance of ritual and bodily practices. A major aim of the course is provide students with analytical resources for thinking critically about the history and politics of modern Muslim societies, with a particular focus on issues of religious authority, gender and sexuality, and the politics of secularism.

What is masculinity? How are masculinities invested with power and meaning in cultural contexts? How is anthropological attention to them informed by and extending inquiry across the academy in spheres such as culture studies, political theory, gender studies, history, and science and technology studies? Limited enrollment.

Over the last twenty years, residents of the People¿s Republic of China have experienced dramatic changes in nearly every facet of life. This undergraduate seminar introduces students to contemporary China through an examination of various types of social transformation. We will analyze how PRC residents of different backgrounds are confronting such processes as economic liberalization, migration, kinship transformation, sexual commodification, media proliferation, industrialization, and transnationalism? Priority is placed on reading, discussing and assessing research that uses qualitative methods and that situates political economy in dialogue with lived experience.

| UG Reqs: WAY-ED, WAY-SI

ANTHRO 147:Nature, Culture, Heritage (ANTHRO 247)

Seminar. Shared histories of natural and cultural heritage and their subsequent trajectories into the present. How thought about archaeological sites and natural landscapes have undergone transformations due to factors including indigenous rights, green politics, and international tourism. The development of key ideas including conservation, wilderness, sustainability, indigenous knowledge, non-renewability and diversity. Case studies draw on cultural and natural sites from Africa, the Americas and Australia.

One of the most generative regions for medical anthropology inquiry in recent years has been Asia. This seminar is designed to introduce upper division undergraduates and graduate students to the methodological hurdles, representational challenges, and intellectual rewards of investigating the intersections of health, politics, and culture in contemporary China.

ANTHRO 149:South Asia: History, People, Politics (ANTHRO 249)

The South Asian subcontinent (comprising of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka) is one of the most diverse and densely populated regions in the world and increasingly prominent in new global political and cultural economies. South Asia has also provided the inspiration for cutting edge theories about the colonial state, postcolonial studies, democracy, popular culture, and religious conflict. The course will provide an overview of major historical events and social trends in contemporary South Asia and focus on themes such as gender, religion, caste, migration and movement, new technologies, the urban and rural, the state, and new forms of consumption among others.Thus, the course will give students historically and theoretically informed perspectives on contemporary South Asia, as well as how to apply insights learned to larger debates within the political and social sciences.

ANTHRO 152:Ritual, Politics, Power (SOC 156)

Our everyday lives are made up of multiple routines, some consciously staged and imagined and others unconscious and insidious. Anthropologists call these rituals. Rituals shape every aspect of our lives, creating our symbolic universes and governing the most minute of our practices. nnFor early anthropologists and for those interested in religious and symbolic life, rituals and rites were seen as both one of the most universal features of human existence, and, as that which enables us to reflect upon our human existence. A prominent example are that of the ¿rites de passage¿ found in every culture, from puberty initiation rites, weddings or funerals, which socially signal the change from one status to another. While initially for anthropologists, rituals marked the difference between the sacred and the profane, soon scholars began to see the ubiquity of ritual and the symbolic in shaping even the most mundane activity such as the structure of a meal and why one is not meant to eat des
more »

Our everyday lives are made up of multiple routines, some consciously staged and imagined and others unconscious and insidious. Anthropologists call these rituals. Rituals shape every aspect of our lives, creating our symbolic universes and governing the most minute of our practices. nnFor early anthropologists and for those interested in religious and symbolic life, rituals and rites were seen as both one of the most universal features of human existence, and, as that which enables us to reflect upon our human existence. A prominent example are that of the ¿rites de passage¿ found in every culture, from puberty initiation rites, weddings or funerals, which socially signal the change from one status to another. While initially for anthropologists, rituals marked the difference between the sacred and the profane, soon scholars began to see the ubiquity of ritual and the symbolic in shaping even the most mundane activity such as the structure of a meal and why one is not meant to eat dessert before the main course. The first half of the class examines these different debates surrounding the meaning and effects of rituals and rites. The second half of the class takes these debates to think about the question of power and politics. We return to the question of how our symbolic universes are staged and imagined by us through ritual forms such as the annual Presidential ¿pardoning the turkey¿ at Thanksgiving. The question of power however pushes us even further to ask why it is that we obey particular kinds of authority, consent to particular actions, and find ourselves doing things we haven¿t consciously decided to do. Many have argued that these kinds of political questions about how we respond and are shaped by power have something to do with our symbolic worlds and ritual, from the most obvious (the monarchy) to the most subtle (listening in a classroom). Throughout the course, these abstract questions will be grounded in cross-cultural examples and analysis.